My question involves criminal law for the state of: NJ
So we were shopping in the Century 21 store in northern bergen with my brother and my friend.
However, when we were browsing the stores and picking up some merchandises that we were thinking of buying, after spending almost an hour in the store, I decided not to and dropped the merchandises in some other shelf (flip flops).
So not buying anything, we walked out of the store, my brother went out first, then my frined and I, then my friend but when my friend walked out, the alarm went off.
Ok, so my brother not knowing the situation, he went to other store but my friend called me that he needed money, and the security manager asked me how old am I and am I family member of him.
I said I am 17 and I am not his family member.
Then I waited at the exit while my friend was in the security room, (my brother shopping in the other store) and my brother and I just went home after the manager said I can go.
But today, the store manager called my mom saying that we are part of the shoplifting (even though I did not give any names or addresses, I think my friend told them).
Edit. We were charged with shoplifting a year ago but our cases were dismissed and expunged. We have not done anything illegal since then.
How do we get out of this? We didn't steal anything and did not conceal anything, only suspicious thing we did was walking around with the flip flops and leaving those in different section.
My brother is in college that he can't come here often if they report us to the police (they might have already...).

